Controversy

“Because in case you hadn’t noticed he’s a human fucking boobytrap!”

Tom Maschler

Romola Garai as Jessie Stone, John Lithgow as Roald Dahl, Elliot Levey as Tom Maschler, Rachael Stirling as Felicity Crossland. (Photo: Manuel Harlan)

Roald Dahl was never one of my heroes. Yes, with my children, we read his books and watched his films and Matilda on stage but too much for me was nasty, so it doesn’t come as a surprise or a disappointment to have him outed as someone deeply hating the Jewish race.  

Just as this play was being planned a year ago, October 7th happened and hostages were taken from Israel by Hamas.  Since then Israel has organised a deathly campaign against Hamas in Gaza.  Now Hezbollah have attacked Israel and Lebanon is bearing the agony of Israel’s revenge.  Children are being killed and no-one is capable of securing a ceasefire.  This killing seems unstoppable.

Known as a theatre director, this is Mark Rosenblatt’s first play and it was sold out a week before Press Night.  It is also the Court’s new Artistic Director David Byrne’s first full production and has ex Artistic Director of the National Theatre, Nicholas Hytner directing. 

In 2020, Road Dahl’s family issued this apology,

“The Dahl family and the Roald Dahl Story Company deeply apologise for the lasting and understandable hurt caused by Roald Dahl’s antisemitic statements. Those prejudiced remarks are incomprehensible to us and stand in marked contrast to the man we knew and to the values at the heart of Roald Dahl’s stories, which have positively impacted young people for generations. We hope that, just as he did at his best, at his absolute worst, Roald Dahl can help remind us of the lasting impact of words.”

John Lithgow as Roald Dahl. (photo: Manuel Harlan)

The play is set in 1983 when Dahl is divorcing his first wife actress Patricia Neal and living with her best friend Felicity “Liccy” Crosland (Rachael Stirling), he is in pain with osteo-arthritis, he is working on The Witches with illustrations by Quentin Blake and his house is full of builders and dust.  He has just published a review of a book by Tony Clifton called God Cried  in the Literary Review where he agrees with the author’s assertions about the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.  The theatre gods must have been watching the timing of this production for political topicality. 

Dahl had Jewish friends and colleagues and one, Isaiah Berlin explained, maybe excusing him, that Dahl was whimsical and liked to be controversial.  In the play we meet his literary agent Tom Maschler (the wonderful Elliot Levey) who is trying to appease the American publishers and the American Library Association who are disturbed by the words in the review.  Dahl has left publishing houses in the past and is arguing about how much Quentin Blake is getting paid for his illustrations as opposed to his fee as writer. He seems disputatious. 

Maschler has asked publisher Jessie Stone (Romola Garai) to visit Dahl to calm the storm and to obtain some sort of apology from Dahl.  She is American and Dahl immediately suggests that she is Jewish and that her name was originally Stein.  He is very aggressive and rude in his approach to her.  She is late and has failed to meet Tom beforehand so that she was not properly briefed.

John Lithgow as Roald Dahl and Romola Garai as Jessie Stone. (Photo: Manuel Harlan)

Bob Crowley’s set is Dahl’s home Gipsy House in Great Missenden but where building work has left only one habitable room as reception room and dining room.  Plastic sheeting hangs at the rear of the stage.

The play is wonderfully word heavy, full of discussion points but Hytner’s direction keeps our attention on every word.  I didn’t warm to Roald Dahl but John Lithgow is compelling and surely conveys how difficult Dahl is.  Rachael Stirling as “Liccy” doesn’t have enough to do although she attempts to smooth the path while having Dahl’s back and obviously caring for him.  It is ironic that Dahl turned down an OBE because he wanted a knighthood and “Liccy” to be Lady Dahl.  This year she was made a dame for her charity work for the Roald Dahl Foundation for seriously ill children and other philanthropy.

I was very impressed by Romola Garai’s depiction of the American publisher at her containment after so many insults.  How to pussy foot round a difficult but important author! They all know Dahl’s reputation for walking out of situations he finds uncomfortable and he does take himself off into the garden and away from the builder’s dust.  There is a superb twist at the end of the play wrong footing people. 

Mark Rosenblatt has included a large amount of Dahl’s biographical information in his text from his Norwegian background, his cruel schooling, his time as a fighter pilot and the death and illnesses of his children.  He was 6 feet 6 inches tall hence GIANT.

This is a really interesting study of a flawed man which asks the question I often come back to, should we separate the work of an artist from his or her behaviour? Really worth seeing and hope for a transfer.

John Lithgow as Roald Dahl and Elliot Levey as Tom Maschler (Photo: Manuel Harlan)

Production Notes

GIANT

Written by Mark Rosenblatt

Directed by Nicholas Hytner

Cast

Starring:

John Lithgow

Rachael Stirling

Elliot Levey

Romola Garai

Richard Hope

Tessa Bonham Jones

Creatives

Director: Nicholas Hytner

Designer: Bob Crowley

Lighting Designer: Anna Watson

Sound Designer:  

Alexandra Faye Braithwaite

Information

Running Time: Two hours 20 minutes with an interval

Booking to 19th November 2024

Theatre: 

Jerwood Theatre Downstairs

Royal Court Theatre

Sloane Square

London SW1W 4AS

Phone: 020 7565 5000

Website: royalcourttheatre.com

Tube: Sloane Square

Reviewed

by Lizzie Loveridge

at the Royal Court on  26th September 2024